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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences pp 1–11Cite as

Dependent Personality Disorder

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Synonyms

Asthenic personality disorder; DPD

Definition

Dependent personality disorder (DPD) is characterized by an enduring pattern of pervasive and excessive psychological dependence on other people (in order to be taken care of and to meet one’s own emotional and physical needs), fear of separation, and passive, clinging, and submissive behavior. It begins by early adulthood, and it is present in a variety of contexts and is associated with inadequate functioning.

Introduction

Dependency is a ubiquitous construct in developmental, personality, social, and clinical psychology and refers to an aspect of personality associated with both adaptive and maladaptive functioning. It shows significant variability in its behavioral expression. Thus, it is important to distinguish between pathological expressions of dependency (i.e., DPD), characterized by significant distress and impairments, and dependency with a developmental and/ora adaptive function, that is, ensuring child survival and...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

    Alessandra Simonelli & Micol Parolin

Authors
  1. Alessandra Simonelli
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  2. Micol Parolin
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Correspondence to Alessandra Simonelli .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychology, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY, USA

    Kevin Meehan

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Simonelli, A., Parolin, M. (2017). Dependent Personality Disorder. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_578-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_578-1

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